Photos from the Mountains

     Hi everyone. Happy end of the week. We're in the wind down of March. And the snow that fell this past Monday at my house is gone-😀 😀😀 Hopefully, that will be it for this year. 🤞

     I know everyone is probably sick of winter scenes, but I have a few photos from my trip last weekend up to the mountains of western Maine. The day of my brother's wedding the hubby and I took a  morning drive (since the wedding wasn't until later in the day) over to the Rangely Lakes area.  We actually had visited this area several years back, but it was really the only  place close enough to drive  from the ski resort where the wedding was and where we were staying. We did have to be back in time to dress for and get to the wedding.

    I'll be linking  this post up to Nicole's Friday Face Off and also to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

   As we drove up in elevation towards a place called the Point of Land, we discovered the rain every place else had  the day before had  actually been  snow here. Not a lot, maybe 2-3 inches.  It might look wintery, but the views were gorgeous.

     As we drove higher in elevation, there was even snow still on the trees.

    And as we drove even higher in elevation, we could see that the road had not been plowed. But it wasn't like there was too much snow or no tracks to make an immediate turn around.

    And here's a few faces for Nicole's Friday Face Off.   First here is my husband who didn't get out of the car when I stopped at a scenic view to take some photos.

    And besides having to stop for a Rough Grouse who was sitting in the road (and who moved too quickly for me to photograph once we had stopped), we also had to stop for some deer.

     But we didn't see any moose, and this area is full of them. I guess that is good or bad depending on how you look at it. 

      Have a wonderful rest of your day and start to the weekend.

    

T Stands for a Busy Weekend

      Hi everyone. Happy new week. Sadly we had a bit of snow at my house today (Monday),  but it will be warm again starting  tomorrow so it shouldn't last. Of course March can't leave without a bit of a final bluster-😉 grin.

    It's also time for T Day so I want to give a welcome to everyone who stops by from Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's  blog. FYI-it's kind of a long post today. 

    Last weekend was a busy one for me. It was all about ice hockey and a wedding.

   You might remember from a February T Day post that my husband and I like to follow our college Alma mater men's ice hockey team. This past weekend was when the semi-final and the final games were held for  the conference.  These 2 games happen after all the teams in this conference had a chance at a quarter final elimination round. The University of Maine (my school) made it to the semi-finals, and they won after an almost 4 hour game that was tied at the end of regulation and went into 2 overtimes before there was a score. I'm glad we watched that game on TV because it didn't end until 11:30 at night. It  was nice to be able to go up to bed right after it ended. 🥱

    The final game was Friday night, and I would have gotten tickets to go watch it in Boston except I was heading into the mountains of western Maine for my brother's wedding. I couldn't  miss that event, although, grin and ha ha, I was tempted. (Of course not really).

    The wedding was actually Saturday, but Friday evening there was a pre-wedding, after-ski welcome party that we went to. The wedding was held at Sugarloaf Mountain ski area and resort, the perfect setting seeing both my brother and my new sister-in-law are big skiers.  If you look on this ski map of Maine you can see where Sugarloaf is on the top left side. 

     The hubby and I wore our hockey jersey to the Friday night event since the big game was later that evening, Plus we were in Maine, and it's surprising how popular the jerseys made us. Ha ha and Grin. You can see my husband's beer in the far left of the photo below, and that is drink #1 for my T day post.

    We watched the big game on TV in our hotel room later that night. And all ended well. 🥳

Photo courtesy of Hockey East

    The wedding was later on Saturday so people could ski first. I gave up skiing years ago, and my husband gave it up more recently, so we went out for a drive that day. I have some  scenic photos to share  in another post. It was a bit windy but it turned out to be a beautiful day. The wedding was held outside on the still frozen golf course. They had planned for it to be held on a deck overlooking the golf course, but all the golf carts were stored there and couldn't be moved.

    In this next photo are my niece and nephew (who it was fantastic to see) doing readings during the ceremony. Sadly my niece's husband, who officiated the ceremony, had his eyes closed in the photo.

    And I love this next photo of the bride and groom because my brother was telling a funny story (yes during the wedding). 

    You see, my brother forgot the bride's wedding ring back at the condo where he had been staying. It was sitting in its box on the kitchen table. He didn't have time to go back and get the ring before the service because most everyone at the wedding was using the resort bus transportation  to get to and later from the event. By the time the ceremony started the buses were back picking up passengers at ski lifts and bringing them back to their cars. My brother also didn't tell his new wife that he forgot the ring.  Instead, he borrowed her sister's wedding ring, and when he went to put it on during the service, she said very loudly "That's not my ring.". That meant he had to explain. We were all laughing, including the bride. 

    Later on during the  reception someone who had a car went back to the condo and picked up the ring so the bride was able to get her own ring without too long of a wait. 

    The story was great because it lightened a very touching event. My brother had lost his first wife to cancer in 2019, so we're happy he found such a wonderful person to spend the rest of his life with.

    This post is getting long so I'll finish with a beer I had at the reception. It's name is for a ski lift, but may not be the best name for a wedding beer. Grin. But there were no bad moments at the wedding. It was wonderful to catch up with my niece and nephew as well as their spouses, and I actually met my nephew's newest baby who was born last fall. Plus it was nice to see my brother's ski friends who I've met at a few events before.  I didn't get many photos after the actual wedding  ceremony though because I was too busy chatting and dancing and having a fantastic time. (It was a really fun crowd. 😀)

    Have a fantastic T day and week ahead everyone.